Political Correctness & Terminology

[minding-maura.livejournal.com]

Ok here goes - some will hate this, hopefully though, some will also agree.

Let's first put it into context - it is my goal in transitioning to become a fully functioning part of the world as a woman and accepted as such as much as humanly possible.

Now the controversial material:

I consider the episodes of Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect to be a statement of my own beliefs and politics, most of the time. When someone asks if I'm republican, democrat, etc. I say that I am pedestrian.

In that light I consider political correctness and the redefinition of commonly used words or terms with no intentionally hurtful purpose to be ridiculous and self-serving and the pushing of the re-definition of the terms or words to be rude and insensitive towards the general public.

I also consider this over sensitivity to be counter-productive in the individuals debate as well as the entire community debate or fight for recognition and acceptance. If you get hung up on the definition of a word the argument then leans towards that instead of the underlying concept - which is the real crux of the differences.

If we look at the transitioning process as a new puberty we should also look at it as a heightened and greater level of maturity and seize upon the opportunity to develop that maturity further by recognizing and respecting the non-transitioning general publics views, be they accepting or not, and work within the framework that will most help us to win the argument.

A great example of a commonly used word/term is "Real Women". Like it or not, by the proper definition we are not "Real Women". We are striving to get as close to real woman in every way but, we will never get there completely because we will never be physically there. Those close to us will respect that the mental side is real but no one can ever claim regardless of how far you stretch it that physically we are "real".

Ok, now let the bashing of my statement and probably me flow.